Joel Buchanan Archive of African American History: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/ohfb Samuel Proctor Oral History Program College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Program Director: Dr. Paul Ortiz 241 Pugh Hall PO Box 115215 Gainesville, FL 32611 (352) 392-7168 https://oral.history.ufl.edu AAHP 121 Jackie Ayers African American History Project (AAHP) Interview conducted by Marna Weston on September 3, 2010 43 minutes | 19 pages Abstract: This interview was conducted at the 2010 Black Alumni Weekend at the University of Florida. Jackie Ayers was born and raised in Nashville, Arkansas, and then went to school in Essex, Missouri. He describes some of his experiences growing up, as well as his family history. He explains that he ended up at UF because he was recruited by Rod McDavis, who insisted that UF was the “Stanford of the South,” and then he worked a variety of administrative jobs at UF for a number of years. He also speaks highly of what it was like to work with former UF president John Lombardi, and he shares his reflections on the student murders in Gainesville in 1990. Dr. Ayers also reconciles his experiences with racism at UF and wider Gainesville with his belief that UF offers a strong foundation for current and future students. Keywords: [African American History; Texarkana; University of Florida] For information on terms of use of this interview, please see the SPOHP Creative Commons license at http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AfricanAmericanOralHistory. AAHP 121 Interviewee: Jackie Ayers Interviewer: Marna Weston Date: September 3, 2010 W: This is Marna Weston with the Sam Proctor Oral History Program on September 3, 2010 in Emerson Alumni Hall at the Lowe Family Library with Dr. Jackie Ayers for Black Alumni Weekend. Dr. Ayers, thank you very much for taking the time to answer some questions about this weekend and yourself. A: Sure my pleasure. W: Could you please spell your full name from birth? A: Jackie, J-A-C-K-I-E. Lewis, L-E-W-I-S. Ayers, A-Y-E-R-S. W: What is your date of birth? A: January 19, 1953. W: Where were you born? A: Nashville, Arkansas. W: Nashville, Arkansas. Can you tell me a little bit about Nashville, Arkansas? Where is it geographically located? I’ve never heard of Nashville, Arkansas. A: I guess it’s in southwest Arkansas. It’s about fifty, sixty miles from the Texas border between Arkansas and Texas. W: So would you call that the Texarkana region? A: The Texarkana region, yes. W: And is that the Red river? I don’t know a lot about Texas so you have to orient me. A: I don’t know a whole lot myself. I was two years old when I left there, so I don’t know. W: Okay. Who were your mom and dad? AAHP 121; Ayers; Page 2 A: Ralph and Lou Maggie Ayers. W: Where were they originally from? A: My mom was originally from Nashville, and dad is originally from southeast Missouri where I came from before I came here. W: Can you tell me a little bit about your dad’s parents, his mom and dad? A: They were farmers in southeast Missouri, owned a small farm there. That’s pretty much what they did throughout their lives. W: Did you have the opportunity to be close with your grandparents growing up? A: Yes, we spent pretty much every Sunday there for Sunday dinner, and after church did a little bit of work with them on the farm and those kinds of things. W: What kind of things did you do on the farm? What kind of chores did you have? A: Planting cotton, corn, beans; typical farm type things. Driving tractors, grating, disking. Whatever needed to be done we just kind of did it. W: Growing up in North Carolina with my grandmother I picked cucumbers, hand and tied tobacco and cropped that. Did you do any tobacco in Arkansas? A: No tobacco. Primarily wheat, corn, beans, soy beans those kinds of things. A little bit of watermelon is the closest to the vegetables kinds of things. W: What were your dad’s parents’ names? A: Ralph and O’Dell Ayers. W: Excellent. How about your mom’s mother and father, those grandparents? A: Okay. From that side it’s Nelson, so it was Mydell and Viola Nelson. W: Where were they from? A: They were from Arkansas of the Nashville area. AAHP 121; Ayers; Page 3 W: Terrific. Do you have brothers and sisters? A: I have one brother. W: What’s his name? A: His name is Rufus Ayers and he’s living in St. Louis, Missouri. W: Okay, and you’re married. A: Yes. W: How long have you been married and could you talk about your wife for a moment? A: Sure. I’ve been married for twenty five years last Tuesday to— W: Congratulations. A: Thank you. To Shirley Clarke Ayers who I met here back at the University of Florida in [19]79. W: Wow, what were the circumstances under which you met? A: Well the circumstances was is that Dr. Rosie Bingham, who was on staff here, and I were friends, and I had gone home for the weekend and left my stereo equipment at her place. When I came back to pick it up Shirley was there, who was here to interview for a position at the University of Florida in minority affairs at that time. We kind of met and hit it off. In her opinion dated way too long, but got married about five years later. [Laughter]. W: Was it kind of love at first sight would you say? A: Actually it was. After the first weekend of meeting her and spending time with here I actually called my brother I think that Tuesday and told him I found AAHP 121; Ayers; Page 4 somebody that I was going to marry. Now she don’t believe that, but that’s actually what happened. W: Okay. I’ll have to get Rufus in to tell that—your side of the story. A: [Laughter]. W: Do you have children? A: Yes, two a boy and a girl. They live in Kansas, Missouri. My son’s a math and biology teacher, a combination of computer science and engineering stuff. My daughter is a physician assistant. W: What are their names? A: Gavin and Sonya. W: Any grandchildren? A: Two. W: One from each or two from one and the other is still working on it? (Laughter). A: Two from my son and his wife. They’re like nine and eleven, Gavin Jr. and Kia. W: You beamed all of a sudden, you’re radiating. Do you like being a grandfather? A: It’s been a real joy being a grandfather. I’ve had some of my better moments in life with my experiences with them. I usually take them with me whenever I travel for conferences, and those kinds of things. They come and join me. It’s been kind of our way of spending time together and seeing the country together. Provide you with some pretty unique, memorable experiences. W: Awesome. What is your earliest memory of education? AAHP 121; Ayers; Page 5 A: My earliest memory of education would probably be the first day I had to stand out on the road with my folks to get on the bus to go to my one room schoolhouse back in Missouri. W: What part of Missouri was that? A: That was southeast Missouri. W: The town closest would be? A: The town closest would have been Essex or Dexter, Missouri in that part of the country. Being in a classroom with probably little over one hundred folks or less with grades one through eight, six in one room, red brick schoolhouse. W: Literally one room, okay. Do you remember who your favorite teacher at the one room schoolhouse was? A: I don’t know if I had a favorite teacher. I was only there for about little over a year- year and a half, and then they decided to close the school and merge us into another larger school. W: What was the name of the first school? Then what was the name of the merged school? A: I don’t remember the name of the first little school. The next one we went to was Essex Elementary or something like that, which had grades one through six. That much I do remember. W: Did you have a favorite teacher at that school? A: Yeah, Mr. Washington. W: And why do you recall Mr. Washington? What did he teach and what did you remember about him? AAHP 121; Ayers; Page 6 A: I remember about him was that in anticipation of integration he took a bunch of us aside for about a year and made sure that we were well-prepared to move into integrated schools, which happened, I think, when I was in like the sixth or seventh grade. He was very kind. He drilled in our heads the need to, how do I say, be not only good as, but try to be at least one step better than our other classmates that we were preparing to work with. He took us aside and caught us up on algebra, some biology, and chemistry stuff so that when we hit the integrated school we could hit the floor running if you will. W: Again the smile you remember it fondly. Mr. Washington had a strong impact on you.